UK: Conservative politicians call for Theresa May’s departure

A group of about 30 MPs has formed in the Conservative Party to demand the departure of British Prime Minister Theresa May, a former minister said Friday, demanding the election of a new leader at the head of the Tories .

“I think, like a number of my colleagues, that it is high time to raise the issue of leadership,” said former International Development Minister Grant Shapps on BBC Radio 4.

“The time has come to organize a new election of our leaders, or at least to prepare a timetable in this direction,” he added.

These comments come two days after the calamitous speech of Theresa May, delivered at the closing of the Conservative Party Congress in Manchester. The head of government, embarrassed by frequent coughing, had painfully expressed herself, after being interrupted by a protestor who came to hand her a form of dismissal, “from Boris Johnson,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, on the panel behind her, the letters of the Tories slogan were detached one by one.

But its position at the head of the government has been regularly called into question since June, and the Conservatives’ loss of their absolute majority in parliament in legislative elections that it had decided to convene in advance.

Grant Shapps said he had the backing of some 30 MPs. According to the statutes of the party, a minimum of 48 members of parliament is required to bring before the 1922 Committee, responsible for the internal organization of the Tories.

“Grant has a lot of talent, but the only thing he does not have is supporters in the party. All this will fall apart,” said Conservative MP Charles Walker, vice-president of the 1922 Committee.

Significantly, however, that the issue of the Prime Minister’s preservation remains with the Conservatives, Interior Minister Amber Rudd took a stand in the debate. “(Theresa May) must remain in place,” she said in an article published by The Telegraph.

The issue of leadership may become even more sensitive as it may soon have financial implications. Charlie Mullins, creator of plumbing company Pimlico Plumbers, and generous donor of the Tories, called for the departure of Theresa May.

“It must throw in the towel,” he told the Guardian, while criticizing the attitude of Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who staged his disagreements with the Prime Minister throughout the Congress, and could be a candidate for his succession.

In 2003, pressure from some of the Conservatives’ financial backers struck the death knell of Iain Duncan Smith as the then Conservative leader.